


oh, reckless abandon

by varulve



Category: Pitch (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-01
Updated: 2016-12-01
Packaged: 2018-09-03 05:52:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8699803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/varulve/pseuds/varulve
Summary: prompt from tumblr: single parent mike au(see notes at the end)





	

Ava was one and a half when Rachel got sick. Just barely starting to talk in a somewhat coherent manner, walking around like she owned the place. She didn’t understand why all of a sudden she was forced to walk down sterile hallways instead of across perfectly manicured green grass on their free time. Mike spent a lot of time on the DL that season, more than he would have liked but Rachel needed him, Ava needed him. Even if the team needed him family came first, and he’d be damned if he left his wife or his daughter when they needed him most.

Ava was three when Rachel passed away. They had thought she was in the clear, she’d been feeling well enough to spend more time at home. She had gone through a round of chemo, had gone into remission, a lot of weight had lifted off of them and things started to feel normal once more. Until one misread x-ray turned out to be the difference between his wife being there, smiling by his side as they watched their little girl grow up, and watching as the love of his life was lowered into the ground.

Mike barely missed a game that season. Evelyn was a huge help during games, she’d watch Ava, having her sit with the boys or just watching her up in the suite, cheering on Blip and Mike respectively. He owed her endless favors, which she kept promising to cash in on but the soft look behind her eyes told him otherwise. 

He didn’t have some big meltdown; there had been no drunken nights, no sobbing breakdowns in the dugout. If anything he’d had one of his best seasons that he’d had in ages. His batting average was out of control; he hit five more homeruns than his previous season high. Mike was a man on a mission, that’s what the analyst’s like to say. He had nothing to prove- that was their first mistake. All he had was a hollow emptiness he tried to fill with baseball, which could be filled for brief moments when his teammates slapped him on the back. Despite his heroic efforts they still fell short and missed the playoffs, again. All too soon it was just Ava and himself in the big empty house that seemed so much bigger now without Rachel inside of it.

He tried his best to do all the daddy-daughter events he could. Taking her to Mommy and Me groups, much to the delight of many of the other moms, and taking her to as many fun little kid things as possible. God bless Disney, was a constant though that ran through his mind. Both their theme park and movies provided excellent distractions (for both of them) when it got particularly tough. 

The first anniversary of Rachel’s death was when he finally had his big breakdown. After yet another year where they missed the playoffs, a year where he hadn’t been quite as stellar and talks about the end of his career replaced that of his outstanding work buzzed across sports stations. He had called Blip up, asking for yet another favor, to see if they could take Ava for a couple of hours. Just so he could take some time to breathe.

Instead he spent the full time sobbing. He felt broken, time was supposed to heal wounds but that night it felt fresher than ever. He missed her; deep down to his very bones there was this ache for her that would never be cured. She was gone, and even though he had had a year to come to terms with that he had shoved the feelings aside and ignored it. He’d lived for Ava, for his team, for the moment, never letting his thoughts drift beyond what he had to do tomorrow. 

Now though? 

Now he was wrapped in the grief that had been left to stew for a year. It ate at him, his body wracked with loud broken sobs. Slowly he composed himself, his breathing calmed and his body stilled. He had to go get Ava, he had to get her to bed, and he had to get ready to face the world again tomorrow. He caught a look at himself in mirror.

No wonder they thought he was towards the end of his career. He looked haggard; something that the crying he was sure didn’t help. Mike ran a hand over his face, shutting his eyes for a brief moment before grabbing his keys and driving to pick up Ava.

He had called Blip from the road and by the time he was parking his little girl was bolting, full speed, right at him. He crouched, knees popping and creaking in slight disapproval, scooping her up and wrapping her into a tight hug. The squeal of joy that she let out, as he spun her gently around, stopped the pain for a moment. He held her up, beaming at her for the briefest of moments before setting her back down to go thank Evelyn and Blip in person.

The hugs he got from each of them respectively helped too, the promises that she was a delight and they’d take her any time he needed. It was the usual lines, but Mike appreciated hearing them all the same. The ride home was spent loudly singing along to the Mulan soundtrack, both of them smiling and laughing easily. It was easy to forget he had been curled up on the couch clutching one of the few things of Rachel’s he actually let remain in the house only a short while earlier.

They had breakfast for dinner; pancakes drizzled with real maple syrup, sausages cooked with apple slices for just that right balance of salty and sweet, and scrambled eggs to finish it off. They plop down on the couch, mess be damned, and pop on some cartoon movie that she was crazy about. She fell asleep, sticky face stuck to his shirt, before the end of the movie. Mike sat there for a while; just listening to the only other thing of Rachel he had left. Her breathing was easy; she seemed so at peace with the world. 

After a few more moments he carried her first to the kitchen to gently wipe her face before bringing her upstairs. After carefully tucking her into her bed and making sure a nightlight was on, stuffed animals close at hand, he shut her door and went downstairs to clean up. Trying to push the meltdown he had had mere hours before from his mind and instead focus on what he had to do tomorrow.

That was the best way to handle it, bottle it up and toss it away. He’d deal with it again next year, maybe, if the ache of missing Rachel hadn’t begun to fade away.

Ava was five; in the fall she’d be starting school, when Tommy Miller got hurt. It had been a wild pitch, or at least that’s what the pitcher claimed, but Tommy dropped like a sack of potatoes, clutching his hand all the same. The whole team was tense, ready to jump out and go make sure that whoever hurt their boy got their just desserts but sharp look from Al before he and a trainer went out was enough for Mike to turn and shake his head to the team. 

They’d die on that hill another day, but for now there was a gap in their rotation that was more than likely going to need filling if he had to go by the look on Al and the trainer’s faces. 

One name seemed to quickly rise to the top of the list: Ginny Baker. Everyone knew about Baker. She was some young phenom who had a nasty screwball but no real heat to back it up. Mike wouldn’t ever admit to it, but he had caught some of her games on the TV and…she wasn’t half bad.

That didn’t mean he wanted her on his team. Even the buzz was creating a tension in the clubhouse that he could not abide. It would all blow over, maybe it was just a bad bruise and Tommy would miss a start, something that wouldn’t require another arm being brought up. Or, if they did need someone else, who was to say it would be Baker?

When the diagnosis on Tommy’s hand dropped, and news that he’d be out for at least a month, that was when the rumors really picked up with gusto. 

Mike still didn’t believe it until he showed up to workout one day and saw people scrambling around the locker room trying to figure out where they were going to put Ginny Baker.

Shit.

**Author's Note:**

> think of this as the sort of prologue to the fic.  
> just a quick introduction to the altered timeline/backstory of the show.  
> if you couldn't tell from this it is going to be fairly slow burn so if you are here for them instantly hopping into the sack...another fic might work best for you.  
> if you're down for lots of angst, tears, and pain HOP ON BOARD this is the fic for you.
> 
> the next chapter is going to have actual dialogue, introduce mike's daughter a little more & plenty more so stay tuned for that, and i hope this little sneak preview whets your appetite enough until then.


End file.
